


in this room, i am free

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [53]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, Space AU, Space Prison, er...sort of, gaara is leader of the galaxy bc he deserves it, it's like a place for all the potentially dangerous, juugo is content but probably lonely, planetary travel, suna galaxy, temari's job in undisclosed but she's basically running the planet, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29647662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: His sanctuary is an entire floor to himself, crafted to mimic the quiet wilderness of the outdoors. It's a cage on the prison planet of Jahool, but that doesn't matter much to him.She really wonders why that is, and why she keeps coming back.
Relationships: Juugo & Temari
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [53]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	in this room, i am free

**Author's Note:**

> Dat 53: Space AU / Temari + Juugo

His floor is a mimicry of the outdoors. A forest of beautiful trees, coated in vines and moss and teeming with life. The cry of birds, the scent of flora, the sharp gleam of an artificial sun — a paradise of his own design. 

Temari wouldn’t call Jahool a prison, but it’s certainly a cage. Even if it’s coated in gold, it’s still a place for the dangerous or mentally unstable. The Suna Galaxy is changed under the rule of Gaara, her youngest brother. There is kindness where there wasn’t before, a care shown for those down on their luck. Temari believes it to be an improvement, and she is not alone in this — but there are also others that would see this change as a detriment to their society. 

“Delivery.” She calls, stepping from a hallway built of sharp angles and blinding whites into the wonder of an earthy domain. This is the world he’s chosen to reside in while he recovers. 

_ If _ he ever does.

Juugo does not seem hopeful or even  _ interested  _ in his potential release. He is content to remain locked away from others, hidden in a world of green falsities. 

He emerges from the treeline, the fake sun spilling shadows across his cheekbones and turning his tangerine hair to pure fire. There is a small meadow between the entrance and him, one populated with all manner of wildflowers from across the galaxy. Some, she doesn’t recognize; but she knows that he can call them all by name.

She brings the food in a basket rather than on a tray, and perhaps that’s showing favoritism but Temari doesn’t care. She’d beat up anyone who dared accuse her of such a thing, though few would even try. Kindness is something people deserve, and some deserve it more than others — or rather, some have  _ earned _ it more than others.

Temari knows Juugo is a man of two worlds, his biology clashing within him and making his brain chemistry unstable. There are times in which he becomes something else entirely, a creature with no love for anything but wrath. Reason stripped away to his base instincts. It’s not his fault, it’s never his fault. He didn’t ask to be born.

Perhaps that’s why she’s here.

Bringing him food held within a wicker basket, trudging across the soft grass like she has no fear. Temari is familiar with monsters. She is familiar with men who  _ feel _ like monsters, who curse their birth despite the fact that they had no true part in it. Birth is never the fault of the child it results in. Only the sins the child commits after the event are theirs to take responsibility for.

She thinks he might remind her of Gaara, but also not. Both soft-spoken, both kind, both sure on some matters and clueless in others. Temari watches a bird flap small wings by Juugo’s ear and take off from his broad shoulder. 

He watches her with tired, kind eyes, the same shade as the earth. “Thank you, Temari.”

“It’s nothing,” she replies, waving away that kindness, that softness, before it does something dangerous like settle under her skin. She places the basket on the ground, right in the middle of the field.

He walks out slowly, always expecting her to run, never trusting her to not be scared. She knows it has nothing to do with  _ her _ character, and everything to do with his. Because it’s not her he doesn’t trust, it’s himself. 

Temari is familiar with that kind of man, too.

“You don’t have to bring it all the way in every time.” He murmurs.

Temari shrugs. “I know.”

She doesn’t have to stay and have what amounts to a picnic in a prison cell, but she always does. Because sometimes men are monsters, and monsters are men. Sometimes they are both and neither, but they suffer for it anyway. Temari sits in the grass and complains about her day to a man who fits into an undisclosed category, and that’s okay.

That’s okay.


End file.
